In anticipation and excitment about the new game coming, I started playing a 1943 Long Campaign of Bombing the Reich. I hadn't played it in several years, but it's as absorbing as ever. I'm only a month into the campaign, but I have some questions:

1. It's 9/14/43, and the 15th Air Force still hasn't appeared, even though at the beginning of every turn I get the system message that 15th Air Force has to perform Anvil missions. Is there a specific date for this, a trigger, or is there something else going on? 2. The Foggia airbases haven't appeared. What causes them to appear? 3. The German army in Italy has just settled into the Gustav Line. Is there a recommended approach to dislodge them? Bomb the whole line uniformly? Bomb one or two units at one of the line heavily and daily? Bomb railroad cities that are in the units' supply line? Something else? 4. When I do a fighter sweep from England to a French base, the planes fly straight there, strafe, and fly home. If I do an FS in the Italian theater, the planes strafe the air base then go flying off to the Northwest until they bingo fuel. I've had P-38G's strafe Genoa then fly all the way to Paris before turning around for home. Is there a way to stop that?

1. It's 9/14/43, and the 15th Air Force still hasn't appeared, even though at the beginning of every turn I get the system message that 15th Air Force has to perform Anvil missions. Is there a specific date for this, a trigger, or is there something else going on?

There was not yet a 15th AF at this time, it will be ready at the right time (31st Oct/1st Nov 43)

quote:

2. The Foggia airbases haven't appeared. What causes them to appear?

see above

quote:

3. The German army in Italy has just settled into the Gustav Line. Is there a recommended approach to dislodge them? Bomb the whole line uniformly? Bomb one or two units at one of the line heavily and daily? Bomb railroad cities that are in the units' supply line? Something else?

you only can break lines with a huge effort. normally you do not have enough power in 43 to make it ( you need to destroy more ART and AFV than are produced, including all the stock there has been build up........bomb troops and ARM factories)

quote:

4. When I do a fighter sweep from England to a French base, the planes fly straight there, strafe, and fly home. If I do an FS in the Italian theater, the planes strafe the air base then go flying off to the Northwest until they bingo fuel. I've had P-38G's strafe Genoa then fly all the way to Paris before turning around for home. Is there a way to stop that?

known problem in the old BtR, there is no real way around except to burn the fuel before sweeping the A/F

1. It's 9/14/43, and the 15th Air Force still hasn't appeared, even though at the beginning of every turn I get the system message that 15th Air Force has to perform Anvil missions. Is there a specific date for this, a trigger, or is there something else going on?

There was not yet a 15th AF at this time, it will be ready at the right time (31st Oct/1st Nov 43)

Roger, 79 turns I believe it is, the 15th wasn't around at the start of the game, and there is some OOB stuff we have had to fudge as well (well Gary did, we followed along)

quote:

2. The Foggia airbases haven't appeared. What causes them to appear?

see above

Allied bases will be built, Axis bases will be taken over and become Allied, they will be there when needed

quote:

3. The German army in Italy has just settled into the Gustav Line. Is there a recommended approach to dislodge them? Bomb the whole line uniformly? Bomb one or two units at one of the line heavily and daily? Bomb railroad cities that are in the units' supply line? Something else?

you only can break lines with a huge effort. normally you do not have enough power in 43 to make it ( you need to destroy more ART and AFV than are produced, including all the stock there has been build up........bomb troops and ARM factories)

Single line defence I have never seen break, the double line defence, I was able to break a long time ago (only double line is in Normaday)

quote:

4. When I do a fighter sweep from England to a French base, the planes fly straight there, strafe, and fly home. If I do an FS in the Italian theater, the planes strafe the air base then go flying off to the Northwest until they bingo fuel. I've had P-38G's strafe Genoa then fly all the way to Paris before turning around for home. Is there a way to stop that?

known problem in the old BtR, there is no real way around except to burn the fuel before sweeping the A/F

that is the old Belfast bug (couple of other names too) we have that one fixed, but in old game, only thing you can do in the MED , is either set up Staffing units and give them short legged airplanes, or plot the sweep so it burns up fuel before it hits the target

In your message you didn't mention the version number. Somewhere on the forum was the link to upgrade to #6. Before you get to "deep" you may want to DL the latest, this will remove alot of the "little" problems.

Don't forget not to close escort Bombers in Italy, cause the fighters, on occasions, will do the "Dover Dash", just like sweeps.

4. When I do a fighter sweep from England to a French base, the planes fly straight there, strafe, and fly home. If I do an FS in the Italian theater, the planes strafe the air base then go flying off to the Northwest until they bingo fuel. I've had P-38G's strafe Genoa then fly all the way to Paris before turning around for home. Is there a way to stop that?

known problem in the old BtR, there is no real way around except to burn the fuel before sweeping the A/F

that is the old Belfast bug (couple of other names too) we have that one fixed, but in old game, only thing you can do in the MED , is either set up Staffing units and give them short legged airplanes, or plot the sweep so it burns up fuel before it hits the target

This is the best use I have found for P-39's & P-40's in the game. In the Med 1944, I'll switch a longer legged unit out, just to fly a few straffing missions with P-40's. This cleans up a pesky axis unit on a nearby airfield.

In England, this isn't as bad of a problem, cause the RAF will not shoot down these wandering planes.

I've been using version 1.05. I have 1.065, but it doesn't seem to do anything different, except my strafing missions don't kill as many German planes on the ground, so I stuck with 1.05! Any reason to use 1.065 instead?

I never do Close Escort, I always do HIgh Escort with 2K altitude. Is there any advantage to Close Escort, and in which situations? German plans always seem to fly higher than my bombers.

I've been flying my night bombing missions at 4500 feet into various cities along the Rhine, and into Bremen, and it works like a charm. Just above Balloon level, and the HAA don't pick them up.

I also finally figured out how to use night intruders based on something I read here in this forum. I used to send multi-plane missions to enemy airfields, and nothing happened. Now I write down when Germany planes start landing on their airfield one night, then schedule single-plane missions to that base starting about 20 minutes before the time from the night before, and have 3-4 overhead about the time the first Me 110 lands. I justify this that the UK RCM would be tracking these landings!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version Indicator - After installing Version 1.06x5, check the bottom left hand corner of the Start-Up Screen. If installed properly, version number "1.06x5" should be displayed. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***CAUTION*** Note- Files will be overwritten during extraction. These zip enclosure's will overwrite your current, existing files; thus if you don't want your revised OB/OA files to be overwritten, either: back up your existing files; rename them; or do not extract the enclosed "Stock" data files. Just extracting the Exec. and the Readme will suffice for most people. The BTR.exe should be extracted to your Talonsoft TOH_BTR directory. The data files, if needed, to your BTR data directory. These data files will not affect any current or saved games.

(1) Numerous Campaign '43 and '44 "Stock" OB data-base errors fixed: Spandau area targetting glitch; eliminated possibility of phantom units being generated or consuming aircraft and other resources, etc. For more comprehensive and detailed OB/OA's and data base fixes and streamlining, it is recommended to use the revised OB/OA's available at the 'BTR Home Page'.

(2) Dive bombers will lose more accuracy due to disruption and damage.

(3) Fixed a bug in the strafe-attack routine- concerns which cannons were fired during a strafe attack.

(4) Some adjustments made to the attractiveness of Allied Recce, i.e. acting as magnets to nearby Axis a/c.

(5) Removed "Change Aircraft" button from OB detail screen.

(6) Some adjustments made to date of return of over-run Axis air units in the Foggia Main region.

(7) Some adjustments made to ensure Romanian units surrender when country is over-run.

(8) Additional adjustments made to reduce the AI's propensity for wholesale engine changeovers.

(3) ALLIED REPLACEMENTS - The blank B-17 group has been removed from the data files.

(4) NIGHT COMBAT - Fixes the Nightfighter interception bug.

(5) OFFICER RANK - Fixes the OBERSTLEUTNANT to UNTERFELDWEBEL bug.

(6) PLANES IN TRANSIT - Additional tweaks to the AIRCRAFT in TRANSIT routines.

(7) FLAK TRANSFER - Fixes the 'flak production goes to 204' bug.

(8) REPAIR RATES - Repair rates have been increased (to the levels listed in the manual).

Recommendation (All Versions): Due to quirks in the way that Windows manages memory, it is adviseable to completely back out of BTR when re-loading/loading games, not just to the 'SELECTION' screen, to prevent the occasional incomplete clearing out of resident BTR data.

(1) NIGHT BOMBING - Night bombing accuracy has been improved when attacking factory targets that are in range of the OBOE navigation beams. For this to work the target must be within 300 miles of the nearest Allied airfield and the pathfinder aircraft must be equipped with OBOE.

(2) CLOUD COMBAT - Clouds will now do more to prevent air-to-air combat.

(3) CLOUD COVER - The amount of cloud cover has been reduced.

(4) LAND COMBAT - Land combat operations have been adjusted. Infantry lines were holding much longer than they did historically, even if the Allied player destroyed their supply lines. Players can now achieve that final push through German lines.

(5) FLAK COMBAT - Flak combat has been adjusted to be less random.

(6) FIGHTER ATTACK CLOSE ESCORT - Changed the way in which fighter attack missions work. Now, units providing CLOSE escort will also bomb ground targets if the Lead Group is a FIGHTER unit carrying bombs. In addition, CLOSE escort will jettison their bomb load if attacked by enemy fighters.

(7) FIGHTER SWEEP CLOSE ESCORT - Changed the way in which fighter sweeps work. Now, units providing CLOSE escort for the Lead group will also strafe ground targets.

(8) FIGHTER-BOMBERS - Toned down the damage caused by fighter-bombers.

(9) AIR SUPERIORITY - Changed Allied AI's priorities for the 1943 campaign. Specifically, the 8th Air Force will focus on aircraft production targets, while the 9th Air Force and the 2nd Tactical Air Force will focus on airfields and RADAR sites. The AI will discontinue this strategy sometime in early 1944.

(11) INTERCEPTORS - Interceptors will now switch to maximum speed when they are 50 miles from their targets. Interceptors will consume fuel at DOUBLE the normal rate when flying at maximum speed.

(12) ADD/REMOVE CANNONS - Added a new feature to the Air Group Detail menu. You can now ADD cannons to the ME109G-6 and FW190A. You can also REMOVE cannons from the ME109G-6/R6 and FW190A-8/R2. No production retooling delay when changing Me 109G-6 Assembly Lines to Me 109G-6/R6 Assembly Lines and vice versa. No production retooling delay when changing FW 190A Assembly Lines to FW 190A-8/R2 Assembly Lines and vice versa. The arming feature is available immediately for the ME109G-6; and is available for the FW-190 series in early 1944.

(13) FIGHTER COMBAT ALTITUDE LOSS - During fighter versus fighter dogfights the engaged air units will lose up to half of their altitude.

(1) TAKEOFF - The delayed takeoff bug has been fixed. Now if the Lead group is delayed, the accompanying bombers will delay as well. Additionally, if the Lead group aborts, the accompanying bombers will also abort. No more planes flying around in circles.

(4) TIME MULTIPLE COMBAT - Fixed bug that caused air-to-air combat at time multiple 1 to be bloodier than time multiple 8. Aircraft losses are now more even throughout all time multiples.

(5) RAIL FLAK - Fixed the bug that allowed rail flak to fire and be targeted during its move-delay period. Rail flak will not fire, nor can it be targeted, during its move-delay period. Also, made changes to ensure that rail-flak actually fires.

(6) ME 110G-2 - The max altitude for the Me 110G-2 is now 32,800.

(7) 88mm FLAK - The max firing altitude for 88mm Flak is now 29,000.

(8) FACTORY LOCATION - Fixed bug in the factory location routine, when factories take a certain amount of damage then relocate.

(1) ICING DAMAGE - Aircraft may now abort their missions more readily from icing effects at 27,000 feet or higher.

(2) U-BOAT PENS AND LARGE FACTORIES - It is now harder to damage very large factories (those factories with a capacity above 20) and U-boat pens.

(3) The P-38G - The P-38G now has reduced agility above 19,000 feet.

(4) AA ROCKETS AND GERMAN FIGHTERS - As the Axis player, you now have the ability to add AA rockets to certain aircraft types. You can do this under the List Air Units function, by selecting a specific fighter unit and then viewing its "details." If that unit can carry rockets, the "Add Rockets" button appears. To add rockets, click the button. The rockets appear either as an additional weapon, or replaces the aircraft's drop tanks (which of course reduces the aircraft's flight range). An aircraft carrying rockets has its maneuverability reduced by 20% and its speed reduced by 10%.

(5) AXIS AI ADJUSTMENTS - Adjusted AI to reduce the tendancy of Axis units from launching against raids that are withdrawing out of interceptor range. Also, major improvements in redirecting patrols to intercept other raids.

(6) AIR COMBAT - Air combat has been tweaked to make it less bloody.

(7) PRODUCTION REQUIREMENTS FEATURE - A new feature has been added on the Production List Menu. The "Production Requirements" display shows the number of parts and engines "required" to satisfy current assembly demand. It also shows the "planned" production (the amount of parts Axis industry plans to produce in one day) and "actual" production (how many parts are currently being produced per day). The plannedand actual numbers are often the same, but as you change production, these numbers will fluctuate to reflect the ebb and flow of current Axis production. A good way to read and understand this information is to look at the starting production numbers for Me109 Parts. At the start of a new 1943 Campaign, the "required" 109 parts is 28; the "planned" and "actual" is 32. Thus, your current Me109 parts production is running 4 higher than needed. So if you were to change the Atzgerdorf factory's Me109 parts to FW-190 parts, your actual and planned Me109 numbers would reduce to 27, because Atzgerdorf was producing x5 Me109 parts, and your FW-190 parts numbers would adjust accordingly (taking into account retooling time). Notice that your "required" parts of 28 stayed the same, because all you changed was parts production, not assembly production. Your Me109 assembly factories still need 28 parts per day, and yet you have reduced the current amount to 27 (one lower than needed). This will, eventually, cause a shortage of Me109 parts, and eventually a reduction in Me109 assembly (i.e., replacement aircraft). So, in order to bring your "required" parts number down to help ease current assembly demand, you would have to change an Me109 assembly factory to, say, a Fw-190 assembly. And all of these changes can affect engine production as well.

As you can see, changing production can get tricky, because a lot of production and assembly is interconnected. To get a good "feel" for how all of these changes interrelate, we'd recommend that you start a new 1943 campaign, and spend time changing parts production, assembly production and engine production. Play around with the system, and don't start officially playing a campaign until you feel confident with how your production adjustments affect your Axis industrial complex. There's nothing more frustrating than to make a lot of changes and then realize 3-4 turns later that you've made big mistakes (mistakes, unfortunately, that can't be rectified quickly).

(8) DAIMLER BENZ ENGINES - The starting production level of Daimler Benz engines has been increased. [Note: This would not be reflected in any previously saved games.]

(1) CLOSE ESCORT FIGHTERS AND FUEL AMOUNTS - Close escort fighters should now correctly return to base when low on fuel.

(2) NIGHT RAIDS AND SHUTTLE MISSIONS - The ability to "shuttle" night missions to other bases has been removed, because your ability to do so had the potential of causing severe internal problems in the game.

This direction is used to determine the convergence speed of the aircraft and which guns on the defending aircraft may be used for defensive fire.

Only Axis nightfighters equiped with upward firing cannon may attack from directly below.

Fighters with DIRECT tactics will attack from a random direction (front, side or rear). If they start with an altitude advantage then they will attack from above otherwise they will attack from below.

Fighters with BOUNCE tactics will attempt to engage LEVEL-BOMBERS from the front and all other aircraft types from the rear.

During a firing pass the attacking aircraft will converge with the defending aircraft. As the aircraft draw closer both the attacker's and defensive fire will be more accurate. Head-on attacks will have fewer chances to inflict and receive damage than attacks from the rear.

(2) AA ROCKETS - The AA rockets available to the German player were very inaccurate, and so you're not likely to see too many damaged or destroyed Allied aircraft due to rocket attack. These rockets are more valuable for disruption purposes. Rockets launched against bomber formations can cause the formation to lose its cohesion as it prepares to drop its bombs on target, thus reducing target damage. They also help to reduce Allied defensive fire. So, when deciding which units to equip with rockets, take caution and make your choices wisely.

----------------------- Version Indicator - After installing Version 1.02, check the bottom left hand corner of the Start-Up Screen. If installed properly, version number "1.02" should be displayed. -----------------------

(1) FIGHTER SWEEPS - Fighter Sweeps now fly at their normal cruising speed. And, fighter sweeps will dive down and strafe airfields, railyards, and troops regardless of their altitude.

(2) REINFORCEMENT UNITS NOW APPEAR IN ORDER OF BATTLE - All reinforcement unitswhich arrive later in the game are now displayed on the Order or Battle listings found under the SUMMARY tab. All units arriving later in the game are marked accordingly. You may select one of these units to view its details, but the unit is not active until it arrives in play. You may "change" the aircraft type of the unit, and the change takes place. Units marked with an "e" represent units with ELINT. These units are not jammer aircraft.

(3) MULTIPLAYER CHEAT FOR ALLIED PLAYER - The Allies ability to change Axis production has been eliminated.

(4) WANDERING BOMBERS AND MULTIPLE BOMBER CRASHES - An attempted fix in 1.01 for multiple "phantom" bomber crashes was only partially successful. Another attempt has been made in Version 1.02 to help prevent this from happening.

(1) The "Computer Control (ON/OFF)" button under Set Doctrine - Axis Side: This features was included in Version 1.00, but was not covered in the manual or the README. This is how it works. You can toggle this feature on (by command) on the Set Doctrine tab. Doing so gives control of that command over to the AI, and thus during the Reaction Phase, the AI will launch patrols, interceptors, etc. for that command only. You may regain control of the command by toggling the feature off.

(2) FLIGHT LINES AND NIGHT MISSIONS - Flight lines have been removed from inbound raids for night missions only! This is due to the fact that as the Axis player, it's a little too easy to tell the size of the raid by the number of the flight lines reaching back to the formup airfield, since night bombers fly in long streams. However, flight line boxes will still appear.

(3) AXIS PRODUCTION - On the Production List, you will see a number in parenthesis (beside the production column) reflecting the retooling time in the number of days remaining before the retooling is complete and production starts.

(4) SCORING CHANGES - The "to win" score has been increased for some of the campaigns (e.g., Big Week). Please review the "to win" number on the bottom tab before starting.

(5) Several tweaks have been made to make the AI better. In addition, the attack aggressiveness of jet fighters has been improved.

(1) The Turn Mask ON/OFF button under Production List has been removed.

(2) OVERLORD II: Bomber Command has been removed from this scenario.

(3) NIGHT MISSIONS AND AXIS INTERCEPTIONS - A bug has been fixed where sometimes Axis night fighters were going "dead" on the map, thus preventing the Axis player from moving the mouse arrow over the flying unit and getting pop-up box information.

(4) DATA CORRUPTION AND AA GUN POOLS - In version 1.00, there were instances where Axis AA gun pools would wrap into negative numbers. Fixes have been made to prevent this from happening. NOTE: For this fix to take immediate affect, you will have to start new campaigns with version 1.01. With previously saved games (using 1.00), the negative numbers will be reset to zero after one turn, and then work normally.

(5) DATA CORRUPTION AND TARGET DAMAGE - In Version 1.00, There were instances where target damage would become a negative number, particularly with pre-damaged targets. Fixes have been made to prevent this from happening. NOTE: If you are experiencing this problem with a campaign you are playing using Version 1.00, it may take a few turns before the negative numbers disappear.

(6) CLOUD COVER - In version 1.00, cloud cover could potentially accumulate unecessarily, and thus cause excessive coverage. This has been refined.

(7) New Allied Reinforcement Units - Fixes have been made to ensure that new Allied reinforcement units arrive on time in the Full 1943, 1944, and Jet Age Campaigns. [NOTE: It's recommended that new full campaigns be started using version 1.01 to amend this problem.]

(8) NIGHT MISSIONS AND PERPETUAL CRASHING - In version 1.00, allied night aircraft would sometimes repeatedly crash upon returning home. Fixes have been made to ensure that these endless aircraft crashes do not occur.

(9) RECON MISSIONS - Improvements have been made to allow your Allied staff to plot more recon missions when ordered to do so, especially during the first turn of a new campaign.

(10) RAIL-FLAK MOVEMENT DISPLAY - The number summarizing the number of guns in a rail flak unit is now calculated correctly.

(11) CHANGE AIRCRAFT TYPE - When a player changes the type of aircraft in a unit, the computer will not NOT override his decision and change it to something else.

(12) AXIS UNIT HQ PROBLEM - When an Axis air unit is transferred to an airfield under a different command, the unit's data will now update correctly to reflect this change.

(1) FRONTS - When you turn on Urban Locations (AREAS), if you are playing one of the Ground Support Campaigns or Full Campaigns, the specific ground fronts pertaining to that campaign are shown in white circles when they become active. These represent the main fronts, and not necessarily the advance or withdrawal of Axis ground troops.

(2) AXIS AIR UNITS AND CAPTURED AIRFIELDS - If the Allies capture an airfield occupied by Axis air units, those units are pulled off the map and will return later as reinforcements.

(3) GROUND TROOP SUPPLY INDICATOR - When you click on a ground unit, a supply message flashes momentarily. The supply cost shown represents the difficulty a unit has in removing its distruption. The higher the supply cost, the less disruption the unit can remove during resupply. The lower the supply cost, the greater chance the unit has in receiving replacements (i.e., AFVs, Flak, Infantry, etc.).

(4) AIRCRAFT DEVICES AND UPGRADES - During play, aircraft devices (such as radar equipment, drop tanks, etc.) may be slowly upgraded to better models. As this upgrade occurs, units begin receiving these upgrades on an individual plane by plane basis. This accounts for why, at certain moments in the game, units of the same aircraft type will have different radar equipment and drop tanks, etc.

(5) TRANSFERRING AIR UNITS FROM BASE TO BASE - If you are transferring units as the Allied player, you must stay within your command or sub-command. For example, a B-24 attached to the Second Bomber Division cannot be transferred to an airfield controlled by the First Bomber Division. After selecting a unit to transfer, the airfields that you can transfer it to, highlight in blue.

Hi, Some more strategy questions now I'm on Oct. 2, 1943 (I'm not moving very fast in this game!).

1. Night bombing strategies - are there better and worse strategies for the night bombing campaign? Better to keep hitting the same city (e.g., Hamburg) five nights in a row, or rotate through a target list over 1-2 weeks? 2. Night bombing tactics - if I fly my night bombers at 4500', they seem to have the best of both worlds of avoiding balloons and most AA. This seems too good to be true. Is it? 3. 15th AF changeover - I let the game play through a month without missions just to see what happens when the 15th AF finally arrives. I should let you know that I had already converted all 12th AF medium and heavy bomber units to B24's. When Nov. 1 comes around, all but one of the 12th AF bomber groups goes over to the 15th AF. Is this supposed to happen? If not, anything I can do about it, such as changing all the BG's back to B25's on Oct. 30/31 and wait until Nov. 1 comes and goes?

Hi, Some more strategy questions now I'm on Oct. 2, 1943 (I'm not moving very fast in this game!).

1. Night bombing strategies - are there better and worse strategies for the night bombing campaign? Better to keep hitting the same city (e.g., Hamburg) five nights in a row, or rotate through a target list over 1-2 weeks?

overall, would say, it depends on how much damage you did early, really, there is a decline in damage doable, once damage is done, but you may want to change your angle of attack on large Urban targets, so you hit and burn out areas you have not hit before (if Urban area is burned out, no need to hit it again, it is already burned out ! :)

2. Night bombing tactics - if I fly my night bombers at 4500', they seem to have the best of both worlds of avoiding balloons and most AA. This seems too good to be true. Is it?

errr, overall, I don't think I would offer that as a primary tactic, I would say that you have been lucky and not been running into many areas with light/med AA, and Balloons, light and med AA is going to eat you up one of these days (nights)plus, the you are going to run into the slant range of the big boys one mission, and then you are going to get slaughtered

3. 15th AF changeover - I let the game play through a month without missions just to see what happens when the 15th AF finally arrives. I should let you know that I had already converted all 12th AF medium and heavy bomber units to B24's. When Nov. 1 comes around, all but one of the 12th AF bomber groups goes over to the 15th AF. Is this supposed to happen? If not, anything I can do about it, such as changing all the BG's back to B25's on Oct. 30/31 and wait until Nov. 1 comes and goes?

yeap, you need to leave all the Units you want to stay with the 12th, with light and med bombers, if they have Heavy bombers, they are going to go to the 15th, same with the Fighter Squadrons, you want them to be flying US planes, if they are not, they are going to stick with the 12th

Thanks for the quick response. Two follow-up questions based on your answers:

1. To pinpoint Night Bomber raids into undamaged areas of a large city, can I do the following: 1) set a Night Intruder mission to the spot in the city I want to bomb, even if there is no target there; then 2) create a Night Bomber mission and click on Follow to have the bombers go to the same non-target to drop their bombs?

2. On the 15th AF changeover, you say, "same with the Fighter Squadrons, you want them to be flying US planes, if they are not, they are going to stick with the 12th". All my 12th AF fighters are flying P47's and P38's. Does that mean they all will move over to the 15th? Do I need to change some to Spitfires on Oct. 31 to keep them in 12th AF?

Hi, Some more strategy questions now I'm on Oct. 2, 1943 (I'm not moving very fast in this game!).

1. Night bombing strategies - are there better and worse strategies for the night bombing campaign? Better to keep hitting the same city (e.g., Hamburg) five nights in a row, or rotate through a target list over 1-2 weeks? 2. Night bombing tactics - if I fly my night bombers at 4500', they seem to have the best of both worlds of avoiding balloons and most AA. This seems too good to be true. Is it? 3. 15th AF changeover - I let the game play through a month without missions just to see what happens when the 15th AF finally arrives. I should let you know that I had already converted all 12th AF medium and heavy bomber units to B24's. When Nov. 1 comes around, all but one of the 12th AF bomber groups goes over to the 15th AF. Is this supposed to happen? If not, anything I can do about it, such as changing all the BG's back to B25's on Oct. 30/31 and wait until Nov. 1 comes and goes?

Cary

1. score, score, score and keep the enemy as active as possible! you are able to fly with 30 to 60% of BC each night.....so use it to hit whatever you can. Look where the German NFs are based and use this knowledge Hitting a city 5 times in a row is not really useful in the beginning.....just start to hit as many as possible....later in the game with LancIIIs you can burn out the cities much easier

2. either real low level with highly trained crews(e g pathfinders) or at altitudes above the small and medium AA. at 4500 you are in range of the 37mm AA and all the heavy AA recce your traget and flypaths as good as possible and try to stay away from Flak-traps

Thanks for the quick response. Two follow-up questions based on your answers:

1. To pinpoint Night Bomber raids into undamaged areas of a large city, can I do the following: 1) set a Night Intruder mission to the spot in the city I want to bomb, even if there is no target there; then 2) create a Night Bomber mission and click on Follow to have the bombers go to the same non-target to drop their bombs?

2. On the 15th AF changeover, you say, "same with the Fighter Squadrons, you want them to be flying US planes, if they are not, they are going to stick with the 12th". All my 12th AF fighters are flying P47's and P38's. Does that mean they all will move over to the 15th? Do I need to change some to Spitfires on Oct. 31 to keep them in 12th AF?

Thanks,

Cary

1. not a good idea....will crash the game back to windoze sooner or later (mostly sooner)

2. HS said fighter squadron not fighter group ;) .....Squadron with US A/C will move to the 15th and all Groups will stay with the 12th ( FS with other A/C will either get lost in the Nirwana (bug) or stay with the 12th AF )

ORIGINAL: swift 2. either real low level with highly trained crews(e g pathfinders) or at altitudes above the small and medium AA. at 4500 you are in range of the 37mm AA and all the heavy AA recce your traget and flypaths as good as possible and try to stay away from Flak-traps

I am under the impression that heavy AAs (88mm+) don't shoot anything below 7000 foot, and that is why he suggested lower altitude. Actually, 20mm AAs can reach 6500 foot, so bombing at something like 6800 foot should make more sense. Only 37mm AAs may hit bombers at that altitude.

FG's stay with the 12th, while FS's can go to the 15th, but need to have US aircraft

for low level AA, as I said, the Slant range is what you have to worry about, true, that a Heavy AA unit at the target, will have a min range, and you may be able to fly underneath it, but other Heavy AA may still be able to fire on you

areas, like the Rhur, Hamburg, Lipzig, Berlin, are going to be Murder to low level Bombers, and if you check out the map, there is a nice Mt range like line of cities below the Rhur, and any low level bomber that attacks a target behind that line, and takes any kind of damage, may break off and head for home, by the closest route

and YES, there was a old bug, you can "follow" a Bomb missions, but you may not be able to follow a sweep (a sweep targets a point on the map, and that point may not be true target, and a bombing raid needs a true target)

1. Is there a "dust/reduced visibility" effect from bombing? I am scheduling dive-bombing attacks by P47's and P38's on German troops in Italy. When I schedule them 2 minutes apart, a lot of times I get a "target not found" even though there's not a cloud in the sky? If there is a dust effect, how long does it last? 2. Would it be better to have 3 B24 BG's attack a German troop target together, or have them do it one by one over minutes (or hours if necessary due to dust)?

Yes, figure it as either Dust or Smoke, not really sure how long it lasts, most missions during the game, don't always follow the plans

not really sure, most times, I would think it is more a player feel, for what is better, 3 groups in one raid that almost hit the target is not going to be as good as 3 single raids, that has one right on target and two close, but to how it feels to me, 3 at once, have a better chance of getting at least one on target, while 3 single raids, all have that same, maybe to them

Next question (I got a million of them!): Are fighters ineffective bombing RADAR? I just sent four P47C groups each with at least 40 planes against one Radar site in Italy, and got no damage at all. The A36's I use in Italy seem to do fine against Radar.

well, fighters can bomb (in new game, you have to watch, we have what we call, Allied Paks, mainly for the US, so a fighter can either be decked out for escourt or for bombing, changeable with in the unit page)

would say, depends on the alt and the rolls, a Radar site is pretty much a hit or miss deal, it is small and HARD to hit

a FB is going to be better, but fighters can still bomb and do some damage

also, depends on target type, fighters (from what I remember) are going to do okay, vs Troop, AFs and RR's (forget if Radar was part of that target list from the code)